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3. Intelligence & the Learning Process
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Society often focuses on the simplistic question of how intelligent a person is, whereas the173 question should be, “How do we demonstrate intelligent thinking and how do our resultant thoughts and actions enhance our lives and the lives of others?” Our intelligence is a vast spectrum of capability and how that intelligence plays out, varies, depending on context we find ourselves operating within. Tests of intelligence have focused on rewarding quick and correct responses to questions that ask learners to recall rote-learned information or solve specific types of abstract problems. Each of these problem types require specific learned processes and all the while the learner is under significant duress. This is no more a test of intelligence than would asking someone to read your mind!
Last century, having to remember large amounts of knowledge was necessary when information was scarce and expensive. We could borrow two books for two weeks from the library, but now, just by having access to a phone, anyone can access an extraordinary range of knowledge anytime, anywhere and share that with anyone, almost instantly. Everyone can demonstrate intelligence, just as well as demonstrate poor thinking processes and bad decision making.
Intelligence is now perceived as how well we can apply the Learning Process to find and interrogate knowledge, to form ideas, concepts and concept frameworks, and how we manipulate our learning creatively to be innovative and ingenious. Intelligence is more than just knowing and understanding, as it also requires our ability to understand self, think and question, and manage our world via our competencies. Intelligence allows us to be innovative and ingenious creating unique products, systems, environments, media and apply effective thinking.
Our brain is a complex system and to understand how we work with complex systems we need a simple model. James Glattfelder174 proposes just such a way of viewing complex systems and he shows
it is possible that our brain’s four+1 primary learning systems may well optimise learning, reducing the number of required interactions we use to ‘learn’ by having all four +1 systems operating simultaneously. This solution could explain the almost hyper- efficiency of the human brain when compared to the actions of any other species.
The ability to develop conceptual understanding allows us to apply concepts to an increasing number of contexts, to make increasingly accurate predictions. Our cognitive capacity is initially authored and derived from our genetic makeup, but that inheritance will be mitigated or amplified by our upbringing, mindset, our capability in applying the Learning Process, the development of competence, as well as our extensive range of life experiences.
These factors combine to underpin the foundation of intelligence; predominantly based on the interplay between neurons, astrocytes, and other specialised glial cells as well as the role of our stem cells, hormones and brainwaves. The result is the capacity to form a vast collection of concept frameworks of understanding. Once these frameworks are created, they can be applied creatively to develop innovative and ingenious outcomes across a myriad of contexts, ranging from the arts and communication, to science, relationships, engineering, medicine and sport.
173 The chapter 25 summary video can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ELkaMKNSk if you are reading the book, otherwise click on the video icon at the top of the page
174 Glattfelder James B. (October 2012) Who controls the world? Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world#t-290869
“how an interconnected system — say, a swarm of birds — is more than the sum of its parts.” In
this emerging model,